Dennis Thornton

Dennis Thornton was an IRA agent during the Irish War of Independence. He worked as a librarian in Dublin, and he helped to pass along IRA messages from its field agents to its leadership; he worked with Dublin Castle leaker Ursula Sweeney to expose the accountant Albert Saunders as a British agent. After Saunders' murder in 1920, Captain David McLeod had the library searched and threatened to burn it down unless Thornton showed him the book tickets, which falsely incriminated Sweeney's coworker Lily Lawlor as the leaker. Despite Thornton's cooperation, he was thrown in prison.